TALLAHASSEE -- The Florida lottery may shut down on July 1 if legislators and the governor cannot agree on a new state budget.

On Monday, legislators could agree on very little. Partisan politics in the deadlocked 40-member Senate stalled all action.

``Throwing in the towel isn`t even an option at this point,`` quipped Senate Appropriations Chairman Winston ``Bud`` Gardner, D-Titusville. ``You need 21 votes to get a towel into the ring.``

As legislators continued haggling, state agencies reported to Gov. Lawton Chiles what essential services should operate if no state budget is in place next week.

The Florida Department of the Lottery said it could only justify minimal operations, including guarding instant tickets and the lottery computer.

Ticket sales and maybe even payment of lottery prizes would probably stop, resulting in losses of about $15 million-a-week to education -- with possible long-term losses as high as $200 million.

``Any time a retail product is removed from the market place, it takes time to recapture your niche once the product returns,`` said Sandra Koon, assistant lottery secretary.

Just what will happen to state government on July 1 if there is no budget remains unclear. The issue has never come up before in Florida, and there are no contingency plans.

Chiles, relying on a state Constitution provision that gives him emergency powers, has said he would issue an executive order on July 1 on what state services should be kept intact.

Chiles may curtail agencies directly under his control, such as the lottery, and many employees of those agencies would not have their pay vouchers submitted to the comptroller.

However, state Comptroller Gerald Lewis has said that even without a budget he will issue pay vouchers for all state employees on the basis that government is essential.

State Treasurer Tom Gallagher has asked the courts to tell him whether he can cash any checks issued by Lewis. But Leon Circuit Judge Ralph Smith told Gallagher on Monday that he cannot address a hypothetical question.

Under agency recommendations to Chiles, many state functions might continue almost intact -- with prison guards on duty, schools open, the Florida Highway Patrol on the roads, most social services at work and driver`s license bureaus open.

Regulatory agencies, such as the Department of Environmental Regulation, might survive for awhile in only skeletal form.

``These are all going under review,`` said Kathy Putnam of the governor`s press office.

House and Senate leaders have voiced hopes that they can agree on some spending plan by next Tuesday, even though their special session does not officially end until July 10.

But Senate Republicans, trying to stall consideration of new taxes sought by Chiles and the House, on Monday used a procedural maneuver to stop talk on anything other than a $30.6 billion no-new-taxes budget.

``It`s outrageous,`` said an angry Senate President Gwen Margolis, D-North Miami Beach. ``The Republicans are an amazing group of obstructionists. They are an embarrassment to the Senate.``